Little on Offer
School's out and so it is summer vacation time for Stuart Little and his family so they all head up to Lake Garland where they have rented a cabin by the lake, even Snowbell is going with them despite disliking the disruption to his routine. But it seems there is some sort of beast living in the surrounding woods which bullies and terrorizes all animals in the area. When Snowbell is taken hostage by the beast it is up to Stuart with the help of some new friends to rescue him whilst dealing with the beast once and for all.
The "Stuart Little" movies have never really been my thing and whilst the rendering of Stuart the mouse always impressed I always felt they were more a movie for children rather than families with only the CGI work really working for grown ups. It is one of the reasons why when it comes to "Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild" I find it below par as the clever computer work has been dispensed with and replaced by some sad looking animation work, the low budget cartoon style animations which you get in some video games. I don't know why they switched the styling but it sadly makes this third movie feel low budget.
Having said that I don't think "Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild" is low budget as many of the original cast including Michael J. Fox, Geena Davis and Hugh Laurie return to voice their characters. It is the movie's one saving grace as whilst Geena Davis is only in it sparingly Hugh Laurie has a bigger part to play and frankly if anyone other than Michael j. Fox voices Stuart it wouldn't feel right.
Aside from that, well of course "Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild" has to have some sort of life lesson to teach young minds who watch this, it is what is expected. Unfortunately this side of the movie comes across as basic as the animation work does and constantly lacks the subtlety to prevent it from feeling preachy.
What this all boils down to is that "Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild" is in truth a touch disappointing as it lacks much of what made the first two movies work for almost a whole family. But I would imagine there is still enough fun in "Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild" for it to work for young children.
